The Liberal Male

Hidden in the dark crevices of organic food markets and coffee shops lurks the saber-toothed, liberal male. He is a creature who rides his bike, hates SUVs, and thrives on a diet of rhetoric, open-toed shoes and of course, a progressive agenda. You may find him declaring women should have the “right to choose”, or shaking his little blue fist at “The Man” for keeping minorities down. If you’re lucky, you’ll witness his self-declared brilliance as he talks about taxing the rich and redistributing their income to the Little People. Yes, the liberal male is a fascinating specimen who is either prettier than any woman you’ll ever see or who hasn’t bathed since the Reagan administration…

Okay, so that’s a humorous take on men of the liberal persuasion, and while there is a great deal of truth in humor, it’s not entirely accurate. Although, I’m pretty sure most liberal men dig on open-toed shoes and I know for a fact they’re more than happy to remind me that I have a right to choose what to do with my body. Oh, and they do prefer organic tomatoes.

I am writing about liberal men because of several interactions I’ve had with said men in the social media realm, particularly Twitter. (Side note, if you’re just getting started in social media, Facebook is like boot camp and Twitter is war.) During one interaction that I admittedly butted into, a liberal gent was telling a woman the GOP hated her and was trying to “control her by holding her reproductive system hostage” and paying her less because of her sex. Of course I am paraphrasing, his tweet was something more like, “The GOP don’t get you, they just use you and want to control your ****.”

Me being me, I had to hop in and politely remind him that few things are as annoying as a man crying about women’s issues and I politely suggested he stick to things he knew about, like crocheting. Granted, I was a tad snarky (it is a part of my personality these days), but I did not expect the tirade that came across from this man in tweets, who had just proclaimed to care about me, as a woman, and my rights. He first insulted me as being a dumb blonde, then insinuated that I have a “big daddy” who takes care of me so I don’t have to worry and finally told me I am an insult to my sex because I am a conservative woman.

Remind me again–who’s waging this war on women?

To be honest, I have had plenty of disagreements with conservative men as well (I know I know, I don’t get along with anybody) yet not one of them has treated me like that. They’ve questioned sources or facts, and may have gotten a tad bit heated, but I have yet to be personally attacked in the way I was on Twitter. For being the supposed party of “tolerance and acceptance”, they sure don’t tolerate or accept conservative women. I guess they only care about liberal women’s rights…

It’s not just in my own personal interactions with liberal men where I’m seeing this level of hate, but you see it with conservative women in general, especially conservative women who dare speak out against liberals using us in their agenda. How many times has Sarah Palin been attacked and ridiculed? Michelle Bachmann?

Perhaps liberal men have issues with conservative women because we confuse them. Liberal women tend to fall in line with liberal men’s preferred talking points…

Men are evil, especially white, straight, Christian, conservative men;
Women deserve special treatment simply because they are women;
Your body, your choice;
Ummm… peace and love?

You know what I think? I think liberal men are afraid of conservative women because they can’t control our dialogue and, in turn, control us. It’s easy for them to pander to liberal women, to coddle them and assure them they’re important and the world owes them. If they were to spew that nonsense to a conservative woman she’d raise her eyebrow and tell them to get a job (and shower, please). Liberalism in general is about the collective, and conservative women just don’t accept that; we celebrate the individual and believe in accountability. We do not accept the progressive agenda that says we deserve to be special because of an extra X chromosome, and that terrifies liberals, especially the men.

Or maybe liberal men are just insecure babies who can’t stand it when a woman stands on principle and value and does not fall in line with his supposed idea of what a woman should be.

Yeah. That’s more like it.